• Пожаловаться

Charlie Stella: Charlie Opera

Здесь есть возможность читать онлайн «Charlie Stella: Charlie Opera» весь текст электронной книги совершенно бесплатно (целиком полную версию). В некоторых случаях присутствует краткое содержание. категория: Детектив / на английском языке. Описание произведения, (предисловие) а так же отзывы посетителей доступны на портале. Библиотека «Либ Кат» — LibCat.ru создана для любителей полистать хорошую книжку и предлагает широкий выбор жанров:

любовные романы фантастика и фэнтези приключения детективы и триллеры эротика документальные научные юмористические анекдоты о бизнесе проза детские сказки о религиии новинки православные старинные про компьютеры программирование на английском домоводство поэзия

Выбрав категорию по душе Вы сможете найти действительно стоящие книги и насладиться погружением в мир воображения, прочувствовать переживания героев или узнать для себя что-то новое, совершить внутреннее открытие. Подробная информация для ознакомления по текущему запросу представлена ниже:

Charlie Stella Charlie Opera

Charlie Opera: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация

Предлагаем к чтению аннотацию, описание, краткое содержание или предисловие (зависит от того, что написал сам автор книги «Charlie Opera»). Если вы не нашли необходимую информацию о книге — напишите в комментариях, мы постараемся отыскать её.

A guy goes to Las Vegas for a holiday. In a matter of hours he gets drunk, gets mugged, and gets dumped by his wife. Things could get worse, and do, in this new crime novel from Charlie Stella. With bravura, alternating brutality with humor and high-octane action with virtuoso tough-guy dialogue, Stella crafts his story of Charlie Pellecchia, whose unwitting entanglement with New York mobster Nicky Cuccia plops him in the path of the DEA, FBI, and Las Vegas police. Law enforcement may find Charlie awkwardly in its way, but elsewhere – in deluxe casino hotel suites, at deserted construction sites, on quiet residential streets – a bodybuilding punk looking to be made, a professional killer, a mob chief's double-dealing accountant, and a pair of Vietnamese gangbangers are all trying to put Charlie permanently out of the way. All because he broke a wiseguy's jaw. Add to the mix hookers with felonious kinks, a cop deeply troubled by his wife's infidelity, a ham-fisted redneck with vengeance on his mind, and some bad faith between a Brooklyn crime family and the Russian mob. Things go down tough in this gritty underworld thriller where the name of the game is Charlie Opera.

Charlie Stella: другие книги автора


Кто написал Charlie Opera? Узнайте фамилию, как зовут автора книги и список всех его произведений по сериям.

Charlie Opera — читать онлайн бесплатно полную книгу (весь текст) целиком

Ниже представлен текст книги, разбитый по страницам. Система сохранения места последней прочитанной страницы, позволяет с удобством читать онлайн бесплатно книгу «Charlie Opera», без необходимости каждый раз заново искать на чём Вы остановились. Поставьте закладку, и сможете в любой момент перейти на страницу, на которой закончили чтение.

Шрифт:

Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать
Фото

Charlie Stella


Charlie Opera

Copywright © 2003 by Charlie Stella

Charlie Opera is dedicated to my wife, Ann Marie.


Acknowledgments

Apples don’t fall far from their trees… and such is the case with Dave and Ross Gresham. Since Dave retired from teaching, I’ve been trying to give him a break (he’s put up with my writing attempts for 25 plus years now-it may well be what sent him and his wonderful wife, Linda, packing to live on a boat). Enter Ross… who was an innocent kid when I first met him (he wasn’t a Dallas Cowboys fan yet) and has since graduated from Harvard and earned an M.A. at the University of Southern Mississippi married Jess Randall, a Columbia graduate, has taken a teaching position at the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, and has proved every bit as valuable as his dad to this writer. Luckily, Ross and Jess have a son of their own now (young William), so the Gresham-Randall line of genius continues. I sincerely thank Ross for his careful and insightful eye with Charlie Opera.

Others I need to acknowledge here are: my editor (and maestro), Peter Skutches; my heartbeat, Ann Marie (I fall more in love with you every day); my mother, Speranza (Hope) (for always, always, always being there); The Palm Too (the best steak joint in the world); my beloved New York State Buffalo Bills; the wonderful city of Las Vegas (heaven on earth); and, of course, our fierce (and never groomed like some puffy show dog) Bichon Frise, Rigoletto.

This town needs an enema.

– The Joker (Batman)


Chapter 1

Donna Bella, a twenty-six-foot cabin cruiser, was anchored directly under the Marine Park Bridge in Jamaica Bay. An electronics technician had told the sixty-five-year-old underboss of the Vignieri crime family, Anthony Cuccia, that the bridge’s metal would help to jam any electronic surveillance.

The old man wasn’t taking chances. He let the boat’s engine idle to cover his conversation with his nephew.

“You’re flying to Vegas gonna solve this problem or make it worse?” he asked. “It’s something you should consider.”

It was a hot afternoon in mid-July. A stiff ocean breeze pulled at the umbrella shading the two men sitting on the back of the boat. The old man sucked on his twisted cigar, a DeNobli. He removed it to speak again.

“We got more important things to discuss than your personal vendetta with some mameluke broke your jaw,” he said. “This Russian thing, for instance, it needs to come to fruition.”

The nephew, Nicholas Cuccia, was forced to speak without moving his mouth from a broken jaw he had suffered the week before. He leaned forward and pointed at his chin.

“He’s gotta answer for this,” he whispered.

The old man frowned as he sipped club soda from a glass. He watched as a pair of jet skiers raced under the bridge about a hundred yards from Donna Bella. When the jet skiers were out of view, he turned to his nephew again.

“That’s gotta mend, your jaw,” he said. “What are you gonna do out there wired up like that? What’s the point?”

The nephew closed his eyes in frustration.

“It’s also a far reach, Las Vegas,” the old man continued. “It isn’t like the old days. There’s protocol involved. Protocol takes time.”

The nephew strained to speak. “I need a green light here,” he said. “I want this guy whacked.”

The old man stared into his nephew’s eyes.

“There are rules,” the nephew said. “Wiseguys don’t get touched. What’s it all about, we let a guy get away with this? Where does it stop? I had my jaw broken. I’m a skipper, for Christ sake.”

The old man leaned back in his chair as a warm breeze brushed against his face. “You shoulda thought of that before you grabbed that broad’s ass,” he said. He was down to the end of his cigar. He tossed it over the side of the boat.

The nephew said, “I’m going out there because I want him to know it’s me. I want him fucked up and then I want him dead. I want to be there when it happens.”

“That’s cowboy shit.”

“Whatever. I want this guy to know it’s coming.”

The old man picked at a strand of tobacco stuck between his teeth. “That why you sent a couple guys from your crew out there?” he asked. “To stir up the shit? Make sure they leave a trail makes it easier for the law to come back to you?”

“They went out there to keep an eye on the guy. I gave them specific instructions.”

The old man waved it off. “You want to whack a guy for breaking your face, you should probably wait it out.”

“I’m not asking for permission here. It is what it is. The guy has to die.”

The old man lit a fresh cigar and let the moment pass. He watched the jet skiers returning in race formation under the bridge.

“Last week we saw two broads racing topless on those things,” he said. “They had their tops tied around their necks like scarves. They drove them things with their tits bouncing for whoever wanted to watch.”

The nephew sipped club soda through a straw.

“You ever hear of getting your tit in a ringer?” the old man asked. “Like them broads, they get pulled over by the Coast Guard or something. Or they take a spill, maybe lose a tit, a couple guys drinking on a boat chase them down. Or worse maybe.”

The nephew frowned.

“Because that’s what this could be like,” the old man said. “If the guy talked to people, filled out a police report you don’t know about. If maybe his wife mentioned it to somebody. Which is why it’s smarter to wait a few months. Maybe you change your mind by then, forget the whole thing. That would be even smarter, you forget it, this bullshit.”

“The guy goes,” the nephew repeated. “I’m reaching out. Either you help me or you don’t.”

The old man looked off toward Rockaway Island. “I have a guy out there in Vegas,” he said. “Semiretired. A goodfella from here in New York. He used to do work for us, me and your father, ten, fifteen years ago. I know he takes on work from time to time.”

The nephew wiped at drool forming at one corner of his mouth. “I’ll pay him whatever he wants.”

“We can’t go through Vegas, though,” the old man said. “Not through the people out there. It has to be a private contract. Strictly private. The guy running things out there, Jerry Lercasi, he don’t meet with nobody. He has some accountant he sends in his place. They dress it up for the feds. You go out there for a sit-down with Lercasi, you gotta make like it’s a real-estate investment or some shit. You gotta sign up for land development tours or golf club lunches. You drive around looking at new houses while you do business. Lercasi is very careful.”

“So I don’t go near Lercasi’s people. That’s not a problem.”“When I say you can’t go through protocol, you understand what I’m saying here? My guy in Vegas can’t be tied into Lercasi. My guy is strictly private. For everybody’s sake.”

The nephew nodded. “I understand.”

The old man belched into a fist. “You know enough about this guy you want to whack? You know where he’s staying and so on?”

“That’s what Vin Lano and Joey Francone are out there for.”

“And you’re sure he’s there?”

Читать дальше

Шрифт:

Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

Похожие книги на «Charlie Opera»

Представляем Вашему вниманию похожие книги на «Charlie Opera» списком для выбора. Мы отобрали схожую по названию и смыслу литературу в надежде предоставить читателям больше вариантов отыскать новые, интересные, ещё не прочитанные произведения.


Charlie Huston: Six Bad Things
Six Bad Things
Charlie Huston
Jennifer Crusie: Charlie All Night
Charlie All Night
Jennifer Crusie
Gail Bowen: The Shadow Killer
The Shadow Killer
Gail Bowen
Charlie Anders: Clover
Clover
Charlie Anders
Neil Gaiman: Anansi Boys
Anansi Boys
Neil Gaiman
Отзывы о книге «Charlie Opera»

Обсуждение, отзывы о книге «Charlie Opera» и просто собственные мнения читателей. Оставьте ваши комментарии, напишите, что Вы думаете о произведении, его смысле или главных героях. Укажите что конкретно понравилось, а что нет, и почему Вы так считаете.